


A Shift in Paradigm

by Maise_Manifold



Category: Fandom - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fans & Fandom, Epistolary, F/M, Gen, M/M, Nonnies Made Me Do It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-03 16:49:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10971360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maise_Manifold/pseuds/Maise_Manifold
Summary: Vicki's Jarchie fanfic earns harsh criticism from the Guardians of the Dynamic, and if she wants to be a part of the hot new fandom she'll have to fall in line.





	1. The Freckled Dandy: The Fic in Question

**Debased by the Freckled Dandy**

Archie, of course, was perfect. Well-built, athletic, musical: like a Big Man on Campus from some long lost era, or a copper-headed god from a Celtic wet dream.

Jughead had exactly none of those things going for him.

He also didn't have a devoted father, doting mother, safe home, or a guaranteed summer job.

One thing he did have? A best friend.

A best friend who'd always been there, from way back when they were l'il and things were uncomplicated, was worth more than all that other stuff, right?  
Except he'd always assumed that friendship was rock-solid and permanent, and now....

"Do you actually WANT to stay here?" Archie's voice was a mockery, it was meanness disguising itself as patience. "Is this, like, important to you? Having a real roof over your head?"

Jughead blinked back tears. "You know it is," he said quietly, willing himself not to sob, not to beg; despising himself for his weakness. 

"You don't have someplace you'd rather slither off to?"

Why had he never noticed that Archie could be cruel? "You know I don't," he managed, and then threw caution out the window, sacrificing his dignity in the hope it would prompt some reciprocal honesty, or at least the old easy relationship from before. "There's no place else for me to go, and even if there was, there's no one I'd rather room with. You know that. You know how much our friendship means to me." 

"The do this one thing for me," Archie told him. "Just help me out, Jughead. Help me relieve some tension. It's the least you can do, after all my family's done for you."

Jughead stood up, trembling, and started to undo his jeans, close to coming undone himself. 

The worst part wasn't that he was going to submit to this, exchanging his body for shelter.

The worst part was that he wanted this too. 

At least, he told himself, I can hang on to the one shred of self respect, and never let him know....

He pushed his jeans down to thigh level, feeling his face and neck flush, but a sidelong glance showed him that Archie was shaking his head, smirking, reveling in being able to issue orders. "Take them off," Archie insisted. "Take everything off. I want you naked."

Moments later Jughead's clothes were on the floor. He stood with his back, pointlessly, turned against his friend; they could both still see his dick was erect, drops of his shameful rising urgency leaking from the tip.

"Lie down on your back." At least Archie's voice had gotten softer quieter. Hope squirmed up through the tangle of lust and shame that Jughead was drowning in.

"What are you going to do?" He aimed for casual, cynical, but his voice shook a little, choking on the pointless question. Whatever Archie was going to do, it wasn't like Jughead would refuse, not now, not that he'd let it go this far.

Archie didn't answer at first, pulling a tube of lube from a heap of clothes next to the bed. "Lie down on your back," he repeated, and then looked Jughead in the face. He looked unembarrassed. Calm. Faintly triumphant. 

Jughead settled onto his back and closed his eyes, scared now. 

But Archie's hand pressed between his thighs, opening them just slightly; his fingers smeared the lube along the creases of his legs, along the crack of his ass. "No penetration," Archie said, way too casually. "Not this time. So relax."

Jughead almost resented his body for the way some of the fear instantly left him, his muscles loosening obediently, his knotted shoulders practically sighing with relief as they slumped. It was like his own flesh still trusted Andrews implicitly, even after he'd pulled the "you owe us" card and bargained Jughead into a position of complete submission. 

Then Archie crawled onto the bed, his weight settling over Jughead, his denim-clad knees forcing Jughead's thighs closed, and for the first time ever the internal narration switched off, dissolved, fled. All rational thought fled. There was only sensation.

Archie's cock, hard and huge, pushing firmly between Jughead's thighs. Archie's legs still jeans-covered, pushed down; Archie's shirt still in place when Jughead's hands, involuntarily, completely against his will, reached to rest against his friend's broad back.

Jughead's own erection, trapped between Andrew's six-pack and his own more slender torso, and God it felt so good, rubbing between them...

Archie fucking him, using him, and Jughead's traitorous body loving every second of it.

The hot sticky shameful perfect flood of cum, his own smearing across their stomachs, Archie's flooding the crack of his ass...

And then, impossibly, blessedly, Archie's lips trapping his own, Archie's tongue forcing its way inside and laying claim to way more than just Jughead's body, and all at once he knew it wasn't any kind of bargain, and wasn't about shelter. 

It was about ownership, and possession, and love. 

"Next time," Archie promised hoarsely. "Next time you're letting me fuck your ass."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://victoria-gloucester.tumblr.com/post/160873507460/defiled-by-the-freckled-dandy


	2. The Freckled Dandy: The Problem

You know, I can't say I was ever hoping to be Tumblr attacked. That's not one of my life's goals. 

I had always supposed, insofar as I had ever given it any thought at all, that if I were to be attacked on Tumblr I would behave like a rational person. I would block. I would ignore. I would move on.

But something momentous had recently happened: the BBC's To the Verge of Madness had begun to air, and I had lost my heart. And head. And all my free time. 

I hadn't so much as dipped a toe into the fandom, not really. I was a little too over-awed by the source material, if I'm being honest, to attempt anything in the way of fic yet. I thought I might literally DIE between episodes. I was constantly on the brink of expiring from inchoate longing. 

In the meantime I plodded on, as one does, leaving kinkmeme prompts here and writing fic there. None of it, I mean to say, for Verge. I had not yet begun to Verge. Just for my previous fandoms, like Riverdale.

But I Verge'd enthusiastically and devotedly in private, if you see what I mean.

So when I got my first-ever calling out, my hands were tied. I'd been called out by Anne the Weary. Already, even though Verge fandom was in its positive infancy, still mewling and puking and whatnot, she was the BNF to watch. She'd jumped fandoms before, being somewhat migratory, so she came with minions pre-installed and all the options.  
I could not afford, not if I wanted to be a part of what promised to be the most momentous fandom ever, to cross swords, feint, or parry.

What I had to do, in point of fact, was apologize. Or something in the neighborhood of apologizing, anyway, or at least in the suburb of Vaguely Regretful.

_I'll definitely have to think about what you've said here. In fact, I can't stop thinking about it. There's a lot to digest._

I left it at that, certain that events would eventuate (as they are wont to do), and that by morning I'd be either ostracized or, if I was lucky, embraced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://victoria-gloucester.tumblr.com/post/160873507460/defiled-by-the-freckled-dandy


	3. The Freckled Dandy: Anne's Initial Response

First of all I want to congratulate you on your total, wonderful lack of SPAG errors. So refreshing! 

But I also feel I wouldn't be being a good person if I didn't point out some of the problematic aspects here.

You probably haven't even thought about the wrongness of this ship. I get that! I know if you'd considered it more, you'd see exactly where I'm coming from.

Think about it this way: Jughead is a vulnerable teen, and the "text" of the show underscores that so repeatedly that really, it's positioning him as a child in comparison to Archie, who gets so many "growing into manhood" storylines as he accepts ownership of his talents and responsibility co-equal to his father's.

Jughead is coded with multiple vulnerabilities: unparented, unprotected, physically smaller, socially outcast. Archie in contrast repeatedly steps in to parent/protect Jughead in the ways that FP consistently fails to. 

Therefore your story is--inadvertently I'm ENTIRELY sure, or else I wouldn't even bother posting!--giving a huge "okay" to abusive relationship dynamics.

I know you'll want to think about this and you have some difficult decisions to make now. Please, please, please don't hesitate to contact me if I can help in any way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://anne-the-weary.tumblr.com/post/160875306384/defiled-by-the-freckled-dandy


	4. A Studious Harlot

The next day I logged in to await my fate, and I don't mind telling you I was a little nervous. I was awaiting judgement by one of the great minds of our fannish era, a woman who no doubt downed nootropics by the handful in between posts. 

Already she'd revolutionized one fandom, practically single-handedly destroying heteronormativity by insisting that the career soldier character always top the willowy upper-class aesthete. I'd personally seen evidence that she'd contributed to further disruptions of gender roles by having a gentleman roger his butler, a homely older female character pursue her conventionally-attractive friend, and suggesting a gay teenager would be most attracted to his straight-seeming friend. 

It was all very revolutionary and intellectual, and I badly wanted to be a part of it. 

I didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed that she hadn't responded to my response. She had posted more about Verge, though, and I couldn't help but notice that apparently she is heavily into Branily now. Not just in the sense of shipping them quietly in fanfiction, either; she seemed to have cleverly picked up on a series of minute clues that the creators themselves had embedded to encourage such of their viewers as had eyes to see. 

Now this was good stuff. I settled in contentedly to reread her post and rewatch the episodes referenced, wanting to be well up on the nuances before I offered any contributions of my own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://anne-the-weary.tumblr.com/post/160956219454/the-hidden-reality-of-branily


	5. A Studious Harlot: My Own Efforts

Well. The excitement was palpable, but I was beginning to suspect I might be out of my depths here. I hadn't noticed any of that, and even when I rewatched the episodes slowly, twice, I could barely make out what she was talking about.

But I've often felt that it's the job of the informed viewer to dismantle shows and find out what they really mean, and I was more determined than ever to be part of the pack that had taken on Verge in a really serious-minded way. 

If I couldn't yet venture an insightful observation or a stunning critique, I could at least reblog with an admiring comment. So I did that, crossing my finger that I hadn't been relegated to the secret list of problematic shippers to be avoided at all costs. 

_Fascinating and encouraging! Can't wait to see what future episodes bring us._

I didn't even mention that she'd misspelled "Branily" in her tags. (Tbh I wasn't _entirely_ sure that was an accident; it could well have been a secret signal of some kind, or an in-joke. It's so frustrating being at the fringes of something and not yet up on all the memes and whatnot.)

But if there’s one thing I _can_ do, it’s create fic. By now I was confident that I could gain entry to my chosen circle via my art, even if my intellect was lagging…

#BranilyIsReal #BBC'sVerge #TtVoI #ToTheVergeOfInsanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> His Not-so-Humble Equipage can be found here: https://victoria-gloucester.tumblr.com/post/161350279805/his-not-so-humble-equipage


End file.
